From Stealth Rangers to RubixLab

For the first blogpost i was asked to sum up how RubixLab came to be, what is the story behind the entrepreneurs and the journey. As a co-founder I can in all honesty say I’m not 100% sure how it happened, even the starting date is somewhat debatable. But I will start, if somewhat ambiguously in November of 2013 when I first met Marek in Malaysia. We were both freshly imported to Asia and working with emerging markets out of Kuala Lumpur. Our meeting was completely by chance, as we ended up moving to the same apartment complex just outside the main city. The complex we were living in was primarily chinese, so during the first few weeks we passed each other and gave the required head-nod at our fellow European. Eventually our paths crossed at the local bar and our passion for entrepreneurship quickly blossomed into friendship. I remember the first idea I pitched to him, it was a new newspaper concept (I won’t go into details as I haven’t completely given up on the idea yet) however from that moment we frequently discussed potential ideas.

Over the following week we continued developing the idea, enter Dusan. Dusan was in Bratislava at the time, also very keen on being an entrepreneur, and a long term friend of Marek’s. After Marek and Dusan skyped, he pitched our idea for a local business angel who expressed interest in the concept, but it needed further development and planning. Now we were three, and things quickly got underway, setting up timelines, investment needed, and how to market this new type of incubator to the region. Marek’s contract in Malaysia ended and he returned to Bratislava to work full time on Stealth Rangers. My contract in Malaysia was not running out til closer to Christmas, so my involvement in the initial period here was limited. Our investment partner quickly helped speed the process along and the launch date was moved up to December. Dusan and Marek were the hero’s during this time, travelling to promote the incubator and working on getting the opening event up and running. However, before we could attack the public, we felt a change of name was needed. I was all for Stealth Rangers, but my love for power rangers was overruled and brainstorming ensued. We went through many names over the weeks, and eventually landed on RubixLab.

With vision, goals and a name laid out, our investment partner quickly guaranteed us what we needed to get the final clockworks rolling, all that remained was an opening event that would place us on the map. December proved to be just that, with a keynote speaker coming in from the Nordics, and seven startups from seven different countries coming to pitch, the opening event proved to be a success beyond our wildest expectations.